Our day started with a visit to a hutong (literally “well” in Manchurian), a traditional Beijing neighborhood consisting of mainly one or two storey family dwellings. We were handed over to our local guide Neil who rode behind our conveyance, a tricycle, on a bicycle, telling us about the area and people as we went. Toilet, bath and shower are at shared facilities every 50-75m. This is also the social centre of the neighborhood. This area was reasonably affluent, with cars everywhere. Neil pointed out square sheets of plywood affixed to some cars’ wheels. This serves to protect the rims and tires from dogs cocking their leg.
The highlight of this mini-tour was a visit to a family’s home. Mr & Mrs Liu were very welcoming and served us jasmine tea. Mr Liu is a kung fu teacher with an imposing bearing. His eldest son is also a kung fu instructor - in Houston TX. The bottom floor consists of a kitchen and dining/living room. Bedrooms were upstairs, but we did not see these. The ceiling of the main room was white with red paper cut-outs of elaborate patterns and traditional themes – quite fascinating. They are made with knife and scissors. We told them a little about ourselves and had a very friendly conversation with Neil translating. Photos were taken and we said our goodbyes, returning to the car.
Today’s main destination was The Great Wall. The section we visited is about 80 km from Beijing – a little over an hour and a half. Part of the distance was covered on very good motorway. I should mention here that the streets and roads in Beijing very very good. For the last half hour or so we trailed a convoy of Mercs with flashers blinking and preceded by a police car with lights flashing. Maybe our PM was going there too, but we never found out.
After disembarking we had to brave the usual barrage of souvenir sellers. I hade thought we would be required to climb up to the wall on foot, but no. This place caters for the physically challenged, so we ascended by gondola. The weather on this day was again overcast, but with the added frisson of the possibility of rain. The poor air quality was, according to Jeff, due to a sandstorm. On the plus side, the temperature was low, so this made walking the wall quite easy really. This is my kind of scenery and terrain – lots of hills and valleys in all directions, yet not too big and quite close.
It’s quite astonishing to see with one’s own eyes how the wall snakes along the ridge lines, with guard posts every few hundred metres. While we were stopped, photographing and enjoying the view, we were again approached to have a photo taken with me, This time it was two young women. The guide later reported that these two had been egging each other on to get up the nerve to ask, but he helped them out by suggesting it – in effect offering my modeling services! It was a lot of fun – smiles and giggles all around.
About half way through it started to sprinkle and this continued on and off for the rest of our time on the wall. Apart from making us scramble for rain gear and cover, the rain veiled the surrounding hills in the kind of soft mist that masks successive lines of hills. In between rain spells the air cleared and the sun shone making for an interesting set of contrasts. At the end we had several descent options. One was a chairlift and the other was a sort of sled running in a flattened stainless steel half pipe. Joan was not too keen on this idea, but I wanted to have a go. It didn’t operate when there was rain so we waited a while. Unfortunately rain resumed so we went the other way.
After lunch and soon after setting off for home, we detoured via another tourist trap – a closine factory. First we were shown the five or six stages of the production process – very labour-intensive. And then it was on to the showroom. Naturally you are shown the most exquisite items first – mainly jars, vases and plates. I’d love to have taken several of those along, but the budget only stretched to items lower on the price scale.
The journey back was uneventful.
After a few hours R&R and housekeeping we were whisked away to have dinner in a restaurant outside the tourist strip, where we were to have Peking Duck. Our guide popped in and out several times while we were eating. He is a fount of knowledge about Chinese culture and language. We learned, among other things, that ketchup is in fact a Chinese word meaning … wait for it … tomato sauce. Also, yum cha, a Cantonese term, means afternoon tea.
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